Jesus fucking christ, man. Seriously? The Angels fucking sucked with Pujols and Trout in the lineup all season long. They just cashed their preseason under 91 win total and it's August 21. The Indians didn't catch any breaks solely because Pujols and Trout were out. Watered down lineup? Yes. They still beat Weaver and won a game that CJ Wilson started.

They just swept a series that Kipnis and Brantley went 0-for-28 in. That's a huge achievement in and of itself after they've pretty much carried the offense all season long.

They showed a ton of heart on this trip. CG SHO thrown against us to start it. Two extra inning wins. First sweep in Anaheim since 1999. This is a big deal.

Beat up on the Mauer-less Twins now. Generally I'm all about 2 out of 3, but a Twins lineup without Mauer (and not facing Albers again)? Sweep or bust.

A God Damn dead man would understand that if a minor league bus in any city took a real sharp right turn, a Zack McCalister would likely fall out. - Lead Pipe

I hear ya Pods but I still believe that there's no way the Tribe wins that 14-inning game if either Albert or Trout or both were in the lineup. Either of those guys would have gotten another run home given 13 innings to work with. How many runners did they strand - 17?

The Angels scored 4 runs in 3 games. Their batting order is pathetic. Masterson kept walking Josh Hamilton because he's the only bat they've got right now and he's a shadow of what he was in Texas.

I agree they showed a ton of heart and guys who normally haven't hit much like Stubbs, Chisenhall, and Swisher stepped up in place of the slumping Kipnis, Brantley, and Gomes. The bullpen was huge after being shaky all year, but again, how much of that was due to the weak Angels' lineup that was missing two of the top five run producers in baseball?

Even Weaver hasn't been 100% since coming off the DL and he couldn't crack 90 mph all night.

This is a very crippled Angels team and the Tribe struggled to beat them. Kipnis and Brantley need to break out of their slumps, and soon.

Galley Boys are slop on top of a so-so burger and a bun you coulde get from a Covneninet food mart generic pack. They the Antoine Joubert of burgers; soft, sloppy, oozing grease and cheap sauce and extremely overrated by a biased fan base. Proof that if you throw enough cheap sauce shit on a burger you still can't overcome the lame burger. -JB

You're acting like Weaver's been some hard throwing guy his whole career. 90-91 was about the top of his range when he was completely healthy. Less separation between his pitches, sure. But 2011 and 2012, he went 38-13 with a 2.59 ERA. 2.5 mph makes a difference, but he's always been a guy that mixes his pitches and isn't fastball-reliant.

Has a 3.49 ERA since coming the DL on MAY 29, so it's not like he was just coming back from the DL and trying to find his mechanics. 85/23 K/BB ratio.

Has he lost some of what he used to be? Probably, yes. Is he still a quality pitcher? Yes.

A God Damn dead man would understand that if a minor league bus in any city took a real sharp right turn, a Zack McCalister would likely fall out. - Lead Pipe

Prosecutor wrote:I hear ya Pods but I still believe that there's no way the Tribe wins that 14-inning game if either Albert or Trout or both were in the lineup. Either of those guys would have gotten another run home given 13 innings to work with. How many runners did they strand - 17?

I might......might be able to buy the Trout part argument as I could see it as plausible that in 13 innings he wouldnt be held hitless or could have effected the game in some way.

You're acting like Weaver's been some hard throwing guy his whole career. 90-91 was about the top of his range when he was completely healthy. Less separation between his pitches, sure. But 2011 and 2012, he went 38-13 with a 2.59 ERA. 2.5 mph makes a difference, but he's always been a guy that mixes his pitches and isn't fastball-reliant.

Has a 3.49 ERA since coming the DL on MAY 29, so it's not like he was just coming back from the DL and trying to find his mechanics. 85/23 K/BB ratio.

Has he lost some of what he used to be? Probably, yes. Is he still a quality pitcher? Yes.

I really appreciate the time you put into digging up all those numbers. I love that stuff.

Personally, I'm too lazy to do it. I read something and take it at face value without checking it out. Like this quote from Hoynes' game story:

"I know Weaver's velocity is down after that injury, but that doesn't mean he has forgotten how to pitch," said Francona. "We had one really good inning, but we kept after him. We made him work really hard."

I watched the game and noticed he was at 86-87 so when I saw that quote I put 2 and 2 together and figured he's not throwing as hard as he was earlier this season, without bothering to research it.

Maybe that 1.2-2.5 mph makes a difference. Probably not that much. It's not like the Indians shelled him. But he dominated them in the past and this time he didn't, and Francona mentioned that his injury has affected his pitching, so I added that onto the pile of misfortune the Angels are dealing with along with Trout and Pujols being unavailable.

Now we get Minny without Mauer and we miss Albers? Great. More good luck. We're going to need all we can get.